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TED, (Technology, Entertainment, Design), is a conference foundation devoted to "ideas worth spreading". Conferences, or 'TED Talks', were originally held on topics such as Technology and Design, yet, as the popularity of the talks spread, so did the topics of which now cover almost all aspects of Science and Culture.

Those who have given talks at TED include Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Gordon Brown, Richard Dawkins, Bill Gates, the founders of Google, Billy Graham and various Nobel Prize winners.

Some of the talks are extremely interesting. I was wondering if anyone out there has seen any talks and would like to possibly share some of their favourites.

I enjoy the TED talks a lot. Some of my favorites are the talks given by Richard Dawkins and Daniel Dennett.

I do have some issues with some of the TED talks though. It helps to know a bit about who is giving the talk and not taking everything they say as fact simply *becuase* it's a TED talk. For example, Elaine Morgan gave a TED talk on the Waterside Hypothesis of human evolution, which has been thoroughly routed by the scientific community as a non-falsifiable, borderline pseudoscience, fringe idea.

So, another year of TED Talks is upon us! Here's a run down of specific topics I found interesting:

Fighting the growing deserts, with livestock: Allan Savory at TED2013

In the 1950s, Savory helped to set aside large areas of Africa for national parks. As soon as they removed the people (to protect the animals), the land deteriorated. His theory, backed up by data, was that it was because there were too many elephants. That was “political dynamite,” he said, but a panel agreed with his assessment.

So they shot 40,000 elephants.

But the deterioration only got worse. The elephants were not the problem after all. Says Savory, “That was the saddest and greatest blunder of my life. I will carry that to my grave.” It did give Savory one thing: “I was absolutely determined to find solutions.”

First, he talks about the genesis of Tesla, his realization while still at university that the development of a sustainable energy system is critical to the ongoing existence of humanity — and therefore a problem worth tackling. And while, yes, these cars require being fed by current electrical systems, his belief is that given the inevitability of electric transportation, perhaps Tesla cars will help to kickstart the genuinely sustainable system necessary to support it. “All modes of transport will become electric, with the ironic exception of rockets. There’s no way around Newton’s third law,” he says. “So the question is how you create a really energy efficient car.” In Tesla’s case, the key is to make it incredibly light, with an aluminum chassis and body made in North America. “We applied rocket design techniques to make the car light, despite the large battery pack.”

Recently the rate of crap to worthwhile topics was really bad.
Like there was at any point maybe 1 good talk on the front page. Maybe my interests are to narrow, but I remember TED to be much better in previous years.